Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader responsible for the foulest ethnic pogroms in Europe since the Nazis, is going on trial.

Amongst the charges he will face are nine counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the seige of Sarajevo in 1992-95 and two counts of genocide for the mass murder and deportation of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in 1992 and at Srebrenica in 1995.

The estimated number of Muslim men killed at Srebrenica range from 7,000 to 10,000. And a further 18,406 Muslims, Serbs and Croats are still listed as missing. It was carried out under Karadzic and Ratko Mladic under a “direct chain of military command” (quote from the 1999 International Criminal Tribunal) from Belgrade and the Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic.

It is predicted that Karadzic will use the same tactics -conducting his own defence, refusing to recognise the court, etc – as his old boss Milosevic deployed to grandstand and delay the trial.

It will be interesting to see whether the “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” school of supposed “left-wingers” rally to the genocidal Karadzic, as they did to Milosevic. The loathsome Neil Clark, in the Morning Star(September 21 2009), for instance, listed 10 “leftist leaders who did not betray“, including “Some, such as Salvadore Allende and Slobodan Milosevic (who) ended up losing their lives on account of not sacrificing their principles…”

Clark is a particularly crass and disgusting power-worshipper who seems to get a kick out of glorifying mass murder and genocide. But the Morning Star is a quite widely-read publication supported by most British trade unions, regardless of their formal politics. Will the Star (with or without the sicko Clark) be defending Karadzic?

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Dr Paulsaid,

Thus Clark: ‘The problem with Milošević from the West’s point of view was not that he was a Serb nationalist bent on destroying Yugoslavia but that he was a pro-Yugoslavia socialist who tried to hold his country together and who, even after the fall of the Berlin wall, operated an economy in which social ownership predominated.’

Now, if Milošević was not ‘a Serb nationalist’, then this begs the question of whether he actually called for a campaign of expulsion of non-Serbs from territory under his control? If he did, then Clark is guilty of supporting Serb atrocities. If he didn’t, then Milošević stands accused of not controlling his government’s forces and preventing irregulars from committing atrocities, and Clark is guilty of supporting someone who was either incompetent or indifferent to the atrocities. Or does Clark believe that Serb forces and irregulars did not commit atrocities?

Whatever way, Clark doesn’t look good.

But even on his second point of Milošević operating an economy ‘in which social ownership predominated’, this is wrong, as large sections of the Serbian state economy were privatised, just as they were in the other parts of the collapsed Yugoslavia. Milošević differed little to the other former Stalinists turned nationalists across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Michaelsaid,

Yeah the Morning Star is funny like that, it might even go for days at a time with quality socialist and trade union-focused reporting but then all of a sudden, one day it goes on a flight of nutcasery and write about how great the GDR was, or how North Korea is actually ok etc.

Curiously, however, it doesn’t seem to call for a victory to the heroic, Che-Guevara-like Taliban against the evil racist Zionist capitalist neoliberal forces of imperialism. I guess since its sworn enemies at the Socialist Worker got first dibs on that, the Star won’t touch it!

swv, Milosevic WAS a nationalist, and I’m pretty sure he knew what the bosnian serb forces were doing-and if they weren’t acting under his direct orders, he definately encouraged them and gave them power.

i don’t know what some of these so-called leftists are on about..you can’t be fascist like milosevic or karadzic and be left at the same time. the two principles are mutually exclusive.

swvsaid,

Abolishing Kosovan autonomy and going into government with fascist party like the Serbian Radicals are 2 pretty obvious examples of Milosevic being a nationalist.

As for the Bosnian Serbs I’m pretty sure that the leader of the Serbian Radicals Vojislav Seselj said on the BBC documentary “Death of Yugoslavia” that the Serbian state had given support to Bosnian Serbs.

swvsaid,

Going into government with the a party of different political ideology doesn’t necessarily change your own hue. No one claims Angela Merkel became a Social Democrat after the recent grand coalition in Germany.

The Serbia/FRY supported the Bosnian Serbs to a certain extent, but didn’t given any direct military assistance.

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